Historic pubs of Oxford
The Inklings’ two pubs, one of them closed until its restoration is finished, a tavern against the medieval city wall, and a bar with 4,500 ties on the walls.
Photo: Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Oxford’s old pubs come with stories attached, and not all of them are true. This guide sticks to the four pubs people ask about most, says which are open, and separates what is documented from what is only told at the bar.
At a glance
| Pub | Where | Open? | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamb & Flag | 12 St Giles’ | Open, reopened October 2022 | The Inklings’ last pub; owned by St John’s College |
| Eagle and Child | St Giles’ | Closed since March 2020, under restoration | The Inklings’ Rabbit Room |
| Turf Tavern | St Helen’s Passage, off Holywell Street | Open | Beer gardens against the old city wall |
| The Bear | 6 Alfred Street | Open | More than 4,500 snipped ties |
The Lamb & Flag
The Lamb & Flag at 12 St Giles’ is owned by St John’s College, which puts its profits towards graduate scholarships. There has been a pub of this name since at least 1566, and it moved to its present site in 1613. It closed in January 2021 when the pandemic took away its trade, and was rescued by a community interest company called The Inklings, which took a 15-year lease and reopened it in October 2022.
Its literary claims are real. The Inklings, the writers’ group around C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, moved their meetings here in 1962 when the Eagle and Child across the road was modernised, and met here until Lewis’s death in 1963. Graham Greene drank here as a student, the pub appears in P. D. James’s The Children of Men, and it may have inspired a scene in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.
The Eagle and Child: closed until its restoration
The Eagle and Child, known as the Bird and Baby, is where the Inklings met for years in a back room called the Rabbit Room, on Monday or Tuesday lunchtimes. At one of those meetings, in June 1950, Lewis handed round the proofs of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The pub has been closed since March 2020. It now belongs to the Ellison Institute of Technology, which has appointed Foster + Partners to restore it. Planning permission has been granted, and the Institute plans to reopen it as a pub, with the Rabbit Room and the front of the building kept as they are. Until then, the Lamb & Flag opposite is the Inklings pub you can actually drink in.
The Turf Tavern
Hidden at the end of St Helen’s Passage, between Holywell Street and New College Lane, the Turf Tavern grew up just outside the old city wall, beyond the reach of the city’s authorities, and one of its beer gardens runs along a surviving stretch of that wall. It first opened as a public house around the end of the eighteenth century, under the name The Spotted Cow.
The Turf collects famous stories. It claims that Bill Clinton smoked cannabis there as a Rhodes Scholar, and it advertises that Bob Hawke set a beer-drinking record there, though a historian has shown the record has nothing to do with the pub. It has appeared in Inspector Morse.
The Bear
The Bear, on the corner of Alfred Street and Blue Boar Street near Christ Church, dates its history to 1242. Its walls and ceilings hold one of Oxford’s odder collections: in 1952 the landlord, Alan Course, began cutting the ends off customers’ ties in exchange for half a pint, and the collection now numbers more than 4,500 ties from clubs, teams, schools and colleges, labelled and displayed in glass cases.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Eagle and Child open?
No. It has been closed since March 2020 and is being restored by the Ellison Institute of Technology, which plans to reopen it as a pub.
Where did Tolkien and C. S. Lewis drink?
The Inklings met for years at the Eagle and Child, and from 1962 at the Lamb & Flag across St Giles’. The Lamb & Flag is open.
Did Bob Hawke set his beer record at the Turf Tavern?
The pub says so, but a historian has shown that the record is not connected to the Turf.
Why are there ties on the walls of The Bear?
In 1952 the landlord, Alan Course, started collecting tie ends in exchange for half a pint of beer. There are now more than 4,500.
The Lamb & Flag on CAMRA's pub guide
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org, Lamb & Flag, Oxford
- camra.org.uk, Lamb & Flag, Oxford
- en.wikipedia.org, The Eagle and Child
- eit.org, EIT and Foster + Partners to restore The Eagle & Child
- en.wikipedia.org, Turf Tavern
- en.wikipedia.org, The Bear, Oxford
This article was written by the Oxford Society editorial desk from the public sources listed above. We are not affiliated with the people, companies or institutions it describes.
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